


Shoot Me (And I will Live)

by situational_irony_13



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU where Hogsmeade has Squib and Muggleborn owned Laser-Tag Arena, But it's like magical laser tag, F/M, I took liberties, Lily is also badass at shooting, Self-indulgent fluff, like 2 original characters I wanted to use as a setup, t for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:47:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23451916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/situational_irony_13/pseuds/situational_irony_13
Summary: Lily is dragged to a laser tag arena during break.Of course, James is there.And they just can't stay away from each other can they?Luckily, competition is in their blood and love is in the air.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon
Kudos: 16





	Shoot Me (And I will Live)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry? Really just fluff for a laser tag prompt I saw that I couldn't get out of my head.
> 
> ALSO, my best friend beta'd this fic for me and promptly fell in love with Jily fanfiction and has proceeded to ask me for a ridiculous number of recs. I'm pretty well-versed in Jily fics but I'm almost at the end of my personal faves list.
> 
> If anyone has any good recs please let me know! (Preferably with a James Potter that we just all know is ridiculously attractive. We don't need to see him. We know.)

“Do you know what day it is, Lily?”

Lily huffed out a breath, already slightly aggravated by the distraction. “I’m a little busy, Marls!” She said, hey tongue poking out in concentration. Lily Evans was in the process of levitating a star onto the top of the Christmas Tree in the Gryffindor common room. The star was heavy, and an ancient heirloom of the Gryffindors, and she’d really rather not spend her Christmas break filling out paperwork in McGonagall’s office for destroying an antique.

“I’ll tell you then,” Marls continued, flopping wholly into the nearest armchair. “It’s a Saturday. More importantly, it’s the day of the Hogsmeade trip.”

“Look Marls, I really just want to get back to the Heads Dorms and have a nice long soak in the bath. Maybe reread one of the Charms supplemental readings Flitwick assigned.”

“No one invited you, Lily.” Marlene said, determinedly nonchalant. “I just thought you would like to know that your other half is going to be there.”

Lily was already rolling her eyes, the automatic response on her lips. “He’s not my anything, thank you very much.” “Really?” responded Marlene. “Because I remember a certain redhead finally responding with a ‘maybe’ to a certain propositioner.” Lily turned around to stare incredulously at Marlene. “Okay, that happened inside the privacy of the Heads Dorm at midnight, like, three days ago! How the bloody hell do you even know that happened?” Marlene looked over with a shiteating grin on her face. “So it is true! James told Sirius, and obviously I got it out of Sirius last night. I still wasn’t sure it wasn’t a lie or exaggeration.” Lily fell into a nearby armchair, her forearm draped over her face dramatically. “It was really late and I was lulled into a false sense of security by the hot chocolate and treacle tart! And the firelight made his stupid amber eyes look beautiful, and stupid Potter asked the question while staring into my eyes soulfully. Stupid bloody Potter!” With that, she launched a pillow at the bottom of the Christmas Tree, jostling the branches. The heavy antique gold star slipped from its precarious perch, and would have shattered at her feet had it not been for a timely rescue.

“Morning, Evans. Minerva would have had your head for that. She’d have buried you in paperwork ‘til next year!” remarked a certain grey-eyed troublemaker. 

“Next year is in a week and a half, Padfoot, and she would bury me too if I dropped this, so shut your trap.” James Potter said, levitating the star back to its position with ease. “As if, you’re her favorite student!” commented Marlene as she strode up to kiss Sirius on the cheek. 

“I think that honor sits squarely on Lily’s shoulders.” James said, striding up to Lily, to give her a hand. She tried not to look at his broad shoulders, his face rosy from the wind. He pulled her up swiftly, as she tried to fight the urge to stay this close to him for as long as possible. She kept her eyes zeroed in on his wind-ruffled hair. Sirius and Marlene started to bicker about something or another behind them, but all Lily could hear was the blood pounding in her ears. Get a grip, Evans! Except suddenly she was reaching out to touch his hair, to pick out a couple pieces of grass stuck in those soft strands left over from Quidditch. They were so much closer together than they were before, and suddenly Lily’s heart was pounding because she wanted to kiss him but what if she did and he pushed her away? She was Lily Evans, she didn’t go around kissing boys. She settled for scattering the pieces of grass onto his face, pointing out, “You had some grass in your hair.” James cleared his throat, responding, “Thanks, Evans,” before quickly turning around and leaving out the portrait hole. Lily couldn’t help but feel a little confused as to his quick departure. “And, my dear ladies, that is my cue!” Sirius remarked jovially. He kissed Marlene on the side of the head quickly and vaulted over the armchair leading to the portrait hole. “If you would like to catch up with me later Marl, we’ll be in laser tag matches at the new arena ‘til 2. We’ll probably be in the Three Broomsticks after that.” Marlene shot him a private smile, and Sirius bounded back over to kiss her one more time before he left, portrait swinging shut behind him. 

“That’s it!” Marlene yelled suddenly. “Lily, get Alice and Emma. Let’s go to that new laser tag place Sirius mentioned!” “Ugh, Marleeeene. I’m so tired, what with my Head duties. And I definitely don’t want to third-wheel while you and Alice flirt with your boyfriends the whole time.” Lily groaned, hoping that the slightly facetious complaint would let her get away clean. “First of all, Emma will also be there. Second of all, don’t act like you wouldn’t spend all your time flirting with James. Third of all, have you met me? Alice might be flirting but I am going to be focused on beating Black to a pulp.” Lily cocked her head. “Lovingly, of course.” Marlene reassured smoothly. Lily appraised Marlene silently for a couple moments, then broke out into a smile. “I don’t actually have a choice do I?” Marlene shook her head vehemently, “Clearly not. And off we go!” Lily shot her the bird, then went up to the girls dorms to retrieve her cloak and her other friends. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How is it possible that Alice already vanished?” Lily asked as they were being fitted into their laser tag gear. “It’s possible that she and Frank are at Honeydukes already.” Emma said softly, unsuccessfully trying to tighten a strap. Lily tucked her wand behind her ear and adjusted both Emma’s and Marlene’s vests efficiently. Marlene was looking at her incredulously, but that look turned into straight shock as Lily efficiently reloaded her blaster with the magical “bullets” and shot three rounds directly through the bullseye on the target practice board. “Blimey, Lil! Why are you so good at this?” Marlene asked. “You guys, laser tag is a Muggle sport, before all of the magical additions were added at this location. Also my dad takes me hunting.” Her statements were punctuated by more bullets hitting the practice board. “So, do these actually hurt?” Emma asked. Before Marlene could respond, Lily whipped around and shot her point-blank in the chest. “Bloody, fucking ow! Evans, what the fuck!” Marlene moaned. “Gonna take that as a yes. And that, that was for insinuating that I flirt with James!” Emma was outright laughing in the corner, on her knees and wheezing. “That was like an hour ago, get over it!” Marlene grumbled. “And, you do.” Emma added unhelpfully between laughs. “I’ve still got three bullets…” Lily said, attempting a menacing tone that was thwarted by the smile flitting on her lips. Soon, all three girls were doubled over laughing for a reason none of them could identify.

“Round’s starting soon girls!” Theodore yelled. One of the shop’s owners, he was a Squib who fell in love with a muggleborn witch, Ensley. They met in the Muggle world, and both thought the other was just a muggle, and hid the fact that they knew about the Wizarding World from each other. It really was quite a story, but a story for another time, Lily decided. 

She, Marlene, and Emma proceeded into the darkened arena. Just as they walked in, the door sealed shut. Lily was secretly excited to try this version of laser tag. While magic such as hexes wasn’t allowed, you reloaded the rifles with your wands. You could also use whatever inventive magic you could think of as long as it didn’t hurt anyone. She was determined to win this round with her marksmanship though. The three girls went their separate ways, and Lily made her way to higher ground. 

She found a relatively covered position where she could take the other team out one by one. She noticed Peter walking in an open area as she finished loading her gun. Excellent. She shot him in the shoulder, causing him to drop his gun. “Oof!” Peter grunted. “Moony, I’m out for 4 minutes. There’s someone shooting people I can’t see.” He whispered, trying to be quiet but failing spectacularly. Lily’s eyes widened. Remus was here? She hadn’t realized he’d gotten out of the Hospital Wing. Classic Sirius, dragging his convalescent friend to laser tag right after he was cleared to return home. She was prepared to take it easy on Remus when he ducked and rolled expertly from behind one of the obstacles and aimed his laser gun almost directly at her. She ducked behind her cover, heart pounding, ears perked up. “I don’t see anyone high up, Wormy. Must be on the ground level.” Remus whispered, far more effectively than Pete. She was lucky to have heard it. In the next 20 minutes, Lily effectively disabled half of the boys’ team. She hadn’t seen James the whole match, but in a particularly memorable moment she took out Sirius just as he was about to find Marlene crouching behind a structure. There were just 6 minutes left, and the only people who hadn’t been taken out yet according to the magical scoreboard were Lily and James. Sirius had begun loudly calling out to his team to find her. Annoyed, Lily nonverbally silenced him with a wave of her wand. Remus, the bastard, noticed quickly. “It must have been Lily. It could have been one of her teammates but it’s more likely Lily. Not only can she hear him, she must be able to see him.” Remus suddenly pulled a Galleon out of his pocket, supposedly studying it for a couple minutes before slipping it into his pocket again. Sirius was still yelling silently at Peter and Remus to release him, and suddenly tripped over one of the plastic structures and fell on his face.

Lily snorted, unfortunately quite loudly in the resounding silence. She ducked, her body angled towards the opening, completely oblivious of what could be behind her. She remained singularly focused on whether Remus’s werewolf hearing was good enough to discern her hiding spot. Sirius was back to his loud self, and further members of the boys’ team were filtering into the clearing below. Thus, it was difficult to hear anything other than their chattering. She noticed that Frank Longbottom was milling about, suggesting that Alice was with Marlene and Emma. While she was pondering how best to get back to her teammates, she heard the stairs leading up to her spot creak. 

Lily froze, her mind spinning into gear. She quickly reloaded her rifle, but in her haste her wand fell to the ground in the clearing below through the opening. Shit, shit, shit, shit. She kept her gun trained on the opening, her finger tightening on the trigger. “Hey, Lil.” James said, appearing at the opening. Lily’s finger automatically loosened, but she kept her aim trained on him. His gun was down at his side, and he didn’t appear to be threatened by her in the slightest. “H-hey, James,” she said softly. He started walking towards her. “You know, you agreed to go out with me a couple days ago.” He was speaking conversationally, as if completely unaware of where they were and what they were doing. “I said maybe,” she said, her voice conveying far more nonchalance than she was feeling at the moment. “You want to go out with me.” The statement from James was said without his characteristic arrogance, and rather with sincerity. Lily shook her head. “You care about me,” he said again in that same voice. Lily still shook her head, though she knew she wasn’t being exactly truthful. “Really? You don’t care about me?” He was leaning casually against one of the walls. “3 weeks ago, I fell off my broom during a Quidditch match.” All the color drained from Lily’s face. She remembered it clearly, quite possibly because she was sure her heart had stopped the moment he’d slipped off the broomstick. Sirius dove for him, and for a moment she thought he’d make it. But James was falling too fast. With an impressive bit of wandless magic, Lily tried to levitate James by his ankle. While she slowed him down enough for Sirius to get to him, the force fractured his ankle quite forcefully. He’d yelled out in pain and once she was certain James was safe, Lily had crumpled to the ground, sobbing. “I wasn’t going to let you die, James.” “You performed powerful, instinctive magic. And when you thought I was hurt, it felt like someone had torn a hole in your chest.” Lily was looking into his face outright, trying to grasp an ulterior motive. “See,” James started again, his voice hardening slightly. “I think you’re not brave enough to be with me in public. I think you’re embarrassed of your feelings for me, and you can never get over that.” With a swiftness that surprised her, James drew his rifle. “James, are you mad at me?” Lily asked, her gun pointed surely at his chest. “Or are you emotionally manipulating me into letting my guard down?” “Gonna be honest Evans,” James remarked with stomach-jolting smoothness, “It was probably a bit of both. Mostly I didn’t want you to notice a newly recharged Padfoot aiming at your back.” Lily gave him her best don’t-fuck-with-me glare while she aimed her gun through the opening without taking her eyes off of James. Seconds later, they heard a “bloody effing ow!” from downstairs, a sign her shot had met its mark. 

“Merlin, Lily. Can I say that that was one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen you do?” The line was cheesy, but the surprise in his eyes was genuine and she felt warmth bloom through her body as she shot back a “Don’t flirt with me Potter.” She moved slowly, her gun trained on him so her body was no longer visible through the opening. “That was a conversation we needed to have. An important conversation. And you used it to trick me?” she asked, injecting as much hurt as she could into her voice. “We’re both grownups Lil. And let’s be reasonable, you’d have done the same thing in my place. We’re lethal as all hell, but imagine how lethal we’d be together.” She rolled her eyes. “More flirting? Almost like you’re trying to buy time. Don’t know your next move?” “Ah, it’ll come to me Evans. Wanna tell me more about how important that conversation will be when we have it for real?” 

Her mask slipped for a moment, and she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Do you really think I’m not brave enough to act on my feelings for you?” His smirk slid off his face and his eyes widened. “You have feelings for me?” “‘Course I do, you git. And you’re right, we would be lethal together.” Lily began to form a plan, and her smile turned evil. James will still floored by the new revelation, and he was running his spare hand through his hair. “I can see you’re unconvinced. Guess I’ll just have to persuade you.” Dropping her gun to her side, she rushed up to him and shoved him into a wall. She paused for just one second, where their breaths mingled, and his eyes shone behind his glasses, and he looked at her like she was his everything. Just one second for her to question 'Lily what the hell are you doing?' Then she closed the distance between their lips and kissed the hell out of him. She quickly realized she was out of her depth though. James kissed like he had something to prove, and it shook her to her very core. He coaxed kiss after kiss out of her, and finally dropped his own gun to his side. She tried to think through the haze in her mind, and just barely managed to push James away. He looked like a puppy, his head cocked to one side, completely lost, but adorably hopeful. “Guess I convinced you.” she said in what she hoped was a seductive tone, and turned around to walk away from him. She stopped when she was 4 feet away from him, aimed her gun over her shoulder and fired without looking at him. His grunt told her she was just as good a marksman as she thought she was, and the alarms began ringing that signified the end of the round. 

She descended the steps to find a crowd of both the girls’ and boys’ teams staring at her in awe and shock. “What?” she asked. “They broadcast the Final 2 on the scoreboard.” Marlene said softly. Lily’s eyes widened comically, and her entire face turned red. She squeezed her eyes shut, and peeped out between her eyelids, hoping this entire situation was a bad dream. What she saw instead was Sirius Black with the widest, most shit-eating grin she’d seen in her entire life. Even Remus had a hard time keeping his grin contained. “Okay, who else saw our resident bookworm Evans go hardcore Charlie’s-Angels on Prongs?” Sirius roared. “It was to win!” Lily hissed. “Yeah, yeah, tell yourself that. You definitely had to snog James Potter to win a laser tag match. Just like I have to eat treacle tart every day ‘cause it’ll help me pass my N.E.W.T.s!” Alice exclaimed. Everyone was buzzing, and Lily was trying her best not to make eye contact with anyone, when everyone suddenly quieted. Lily turned around to see James coming down the stairs. James was positively glowing. She’d never seen him this happy before, and the fact that she did that had her blushing anew. 

“Okay, I’m going to try this one more time,” James announced, before sinking to his knees in front of her. “Lily Evans: In the span of the past 15 minutes, you announced to this entire laser tag arena that you had feelings for me, shot my best mate in what was the sexiest move of all time, snogged the hell out of me, then shot me in what was the second most attractive move of all time. Will you, for Merlin’s sake, be my girlfriend?” Everyone was staring, and Marlene was prematurely squealing while Sirius tried to shut her up. And yet all Lily could perceive was James, his soft hair and his earnest eyes and the dimple in his left cheek. “Was that convincing enough, James?” Lily finally said, an honest smile spreading across her face. His eyes began to shine as he realized he’d finally gotten her. Lily had no warning before he leaped to his feet and sealed their lips together, promising her something with every cascade of his lips on her. When they finally broke apart everyone was catcalling them, and Lily slipped her hand into James’s palm.

James couldn’t keep the adoring grin off his face. 

“Who knew all I had to do was let her shoot me?”


End file.
